Monday, October 18, 2010

Dogfish Head Brewery make some great beers, especially their series of 60 and 90 minutes IPA's, we won't mention the peach 'beer'. So I was really looking forward to see what they would do with a Brown Ale.

The beer pours a very dark coffee colour with a thick tan head, almost stout like in appearance. Roasted malt dominates the aroma with a nice kick from the goldings hops (they also use liberty in this beer). Medium to full bodied with a tracle like texture. Nice level of sweetness (they add caramelised brown sugar to this beer) balances out the dry, bitter finish. As the beer warms up you get hints of apricot from the aroma which is very nice.

A very drinkable beer that hides it's 7.2% ABV with its smoothness. In a blind tasting I would probably think this is a porter and I find it difficult to discern the liberty hops, however I think this is a very good beer and I would highly recommend picking up a few bottles.

This beer has taught me something that has been screaming at me for quite a while now. In future I need to be patient and allow dark beers to warm up slightly before tasting. My fridge is too cold and invariably I drink a beer straight from the fridge and only when I am half way through do I start to appreciate the complexity of aromas and flavour that come out when the beer has warmed up a bit. Note to self: leave dark beers out of the fridge for at least 20 minutes before opening.